The film’s central theme deals with tribal mores outside of your own. How did you gain access to this world and how did you and your co-writer brother Matthew go about researching the story?

We got in at grass roots level. Talking to people within the British Pakistani community. Girls who had been on the run. Girls who were in hiding. Guys who had been involved in looking for girls. But also crucially to people who had an opinion, a wide spectrum of people. This is a crime happening within the margins of society, so most people we came across had no connection. But they had a view. It’s not a subject that is easily understood academically; but we read every book and paper. And we engaged with the big honour crime charities.

Fundamentally though the film deals with human nature, that’s deeper than the mores. It’s an archetypal story: a father and a daughter, and their struggle for control and freedom.

Do you feel that looking in from the outside you see aspects of another culture that insiders are immune to?

No, but I think outsiders offer an interesting take on subjects.

What was your methodology for developing the script and the film language? For instance did you write copious notes and collect reference stills?

We spent months up North, staying in Yorkshire. Trekking the moors, trekking satellite towns. In snooker clubs, takeaways, pubs. Chatting. Photographing. Trekking. Listening to stories. Exploring the world. This was me, Matthew and George Belfield (who shot second unit). Then we created a huge document. A mood board. Of stills, of film grabs, of paintings, of newspaper cuttings…The tumblr represents this in a weird way: http://catchmedaddyfilm.tumblr.com

Were all elements of the craft of making the film completely locked down before you started shooting or was there some improvisation? Or put another way, did the expression of the actual production process change the nature of the film in anyway?

Some things were locked down. Some things loose. We storyboarded with Robbie Ryan the whole film, with the exception of a few scenes which we just knew we’d cover. George Belfield drew the boards. But this evolved and changed. You’ve got to be open on set for stuff not to work and to react, and to fix it or better it. To stay fluid.

The characters are gritty and real. What was your process for casting and where did you find the lead girl with those stunning eyes?

For Sameena who plays Laila, Augusta Sakula Barry found her on her way home from work. She was interesting from the moment she got idented.

What was behind your choices of use sound effects of minutiae things and the sound scores, especially Laila’s fabulous dancing scene to the Patti Smith track?

The sound design is heightened. Tiny moments one notices. Like going from a wide shot to an extreme close-up. Zoning in and out of awareness.
When we wrote the script we felt it needed a dance scene, at the heart of the film. The Patti Smith track was always in our head for this.

Have you collaborated with your brother before on projects? How did your relationship work on Catch Me Daddy, for instance how would you arrive at creative solutions together?

We’ve always been close. We just talk things through and it works. We’re fortunate, that we both either agree or see the other side, and get to what’s true.

You also collaborated with your usual team of editors – Dominic Leung and Tom Lindsay at Trim – who you work with on music videos and commercials. How did the transition to longer format work between you? Was it a completely different process?

Dom and Tom have both worked in long form. As individuals they are amazing, as a team they’re ridiculous! The best. They interrogated the rushes. They were brutally honest, meticulous. Their styles of editing fused well. We cut at Trim and also at my house. I would cook and we’d sit around talking constantly; four opinions balanced out well. I could go on and on: they’re the best.

In some ways it’s a relief not to have closure. Did you try different scenarios in the edit and what was behind your decision to go with this particular end scene?

We knew it was right. In our gut. The image we kept coming back to was a father in a kitchen with his daughter. Just that, father and daughter – the absurdity, the pointlessness…yet the possibility for change. The simplicity of that image, yet the crippling complexity. A man imprisoned by his own narrative.

Likewise you’ve worked with the cinematographer Robbie Ryan before too. Is there a professional shorthand between you?

Yes, Robbie and I work well together. He understands what we want and brings a vital energy and vision to a scene. He’s just great basically, incredibly collaborative, and wise. His focus puller Andrew O’Reilly was brilliant, and Andy Cole a phenomenal gaffer. They are elite.

It would have been too relentlessly brutal to view if it had been shot in a stark hyper real way. Whereas the rich tones of the lighting, grade, and colour palette as well as the framing of intimate close ups of the characters with the sweeps of Yorkshire landscapes gives a visual poetry that allows the viewer to catch their breath. Is this the quality you and Robbie were after?

We shot 35mm which helps…and an amazing grade from Simon Bourne.

In the end, how did you maintain your stamina to finish the movie?

I feel alive on set. It was madness and intense, and exhausting. But we were with good people.

Is there another movie in the pipeline?

Yes. We’re developing a script at the moment. It’s set in China.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/27/wolfes-honour-film/feed/0360 degree head spin - River Island has launched its Design Forum collection by Jean-Pierre Braganza with a VR experience driven through Google Cardboard and a cross-platform app.The project began as a film commission for BlinkInk collective Dvein and evolved into a real fashion first produced by White Lodge in collaboration with Happy Finishhttp://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/26/360-degree-head-spin/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/26/360-degree-head-spin/#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 18:19:01 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13648To mark the launch of the collection, River Island decided to push boundaries by taking the aesthetic world imagined in film by Dvein and transferring it into a 360° 3D environment for Google Cardboard. The low-tech, easy access Cardboard headset can be downloaded online and will be distributed to River Island customers who buy the collection online or in-store. Using the device viewers can turn the free to download VirtualRI app into an immersive VR experience using their smartphones.

The project launched Monday at London Fashion Week and was elaborated on via a Google Hangout yesterday featuring Tech Editors from Wired and The Telegraph, River Island’s Josie Roscop, designer Jean Pierre Braganza and White Lodge Executive Producer, Stephen Whelan.

We talk with Stephen about the project as well as the digital artists Dvein, the collective behind the 3D realisation of the design and Daniel Cheetham, Head of Interactive at Happy Finish.

Dvein, your film is based on the key design motifs from Jean-Pierre Braganza’s Design Forum collection – a vibrant Kingfisher and chrome motorcycle components. How did you go about building out your interpretation of the designs into a 3D world?

Dvein: What caught our attention the most when we first saw Jean-Pierre’s prints was the contrast between the lively colouring on the Kingfisher and the cold surfaces of the metallic textures of the engines. It was something we really hadn’t ever seen before and it felt both amazingly unexpected and really surprising. We thought there was a lot of potential with the design aesthetic to make a very striking video. It was also interesting to think “what sort of world and environment would these prints live within and represent? What would it be like to go inside that world and those mechanisms to the birds who inhabit it?”. So our starting point was about generating that world, and we thought it would be interesting that it was seen as a discovery trip.

We’ve played a lot with the duplicity of the motorcycle engine parts in contrast with the organic living elements to create a journey in which we the viewer can discover not only the spaces and environments but also who inhabits it: the kingfishers, and what we’ve named “The Kingfisher Queen”, indicative of the attitude of the Jean-Pierre Braganza woman. She – helps give this world a feminine and sensual touch .

Creating a VR experience is not your normal platform – let’s face it, it’s still a rare medium to use. What were the considerations you had to take into account which were different from your more frequent linear animated film work?

Dvein: The VR experience was actually developed by Happy Finish, and it was the first time in which one of our film was turned into an interactive experience. We coordinated with them so that they could turn our 3D materials into the ones needed to create the app, and they conceptualized it in the same direction that we did: the user gets to have their own discovery trip through the world we developed by being one of the birds but instead of being lead by us, they get to choose the way themselves. It’s one of our videos turned into a videogame and well, that is pretty amazing!

Stephen, we’ve just listened to the Google hangout live broadcast about the merging of Fashion, Film and Tech industries and how they drive and inspire each other. Josie Roscop from River Island explained that the production was a real first for a fashion brand. What was the initial brief they gave to you and how did you evolve it?

Stephen Whelan (White Lodge): We’re incredibly fortunate to have such a progressive creative partnership with River Island and have been working with them on the Design Forum Collection campaigns for several years. Josie and her team have an incredibly forward-thinking approach to engaging consumers in a meaningful way with the River Island brand so we wanted to deliver an unusual and innovative project with them for the Jean-Pierre Braganza collection.

Early on Josie and Jean-Pierre made the call that they wanted to work within a digital animation aesthetic for the film. I’d just been introduced to the team at Happy Finish and their Interactive Executive Producer, Daniel Cheetham. He’d run a demo at White Lodge of a few VR and AR projects they had in R&D and when I saw the Google Cardboard it was a lightbulb moment. What if we took the animated elements from Dvein and created a 360 degree VR fashion film?

Thankfully Daniel and his insanely hardworking tech team were able to form a seamless bridge between our video production process and the execution of the digital experience through the Unity game engine. It was the first time we’d put a workflow like this together so it was a steep learning curve all round.

I’m hesitant to say it’s the first project of its kind because the internet of ideas is such a vast space that I’m sure the collective mind was already starting to shift in that direction. But it’s definitely the first use of this technology by a fashion brand to create a seamless video, interactive and ecommerce experience.

What was the key benefit of developing this VR experience – is it the novelty factor or is their commercial potential behind it?

We really didn’t want to go down the road of Technology for Technology’s sake. The creative idea was to develop and extend the world Dvein were building and the tech and Google Cardboard elements were always treated as tools to meet that creative need. It wasn’t about creating a talking point for the technology alone – ultimately the quality of the VR experience had to match and evolve out of the film. Daniel at Happy Finish is a firm believer that tech should help solve creative problems rather than be considered a platform in and of itself. We don’t start by thinking “it’s on TV, how do we fit the TV format”, we start by thinking “we have a potentially huge audience interested in this platform, how to we create engaging content that will give them a meaningful experience with the brand”.

Of course we are really excited about the commercial potential for these sorts of projects – the Virtual RI app includes a direct link through to the ecommerce area of River Island’s website so acts as a seamless driver to purchase the collection at the precise point where the consumer is most emotionally engaged with the brand. Other brands already allow you buy direct from the catwalk. River Island has pioneered a way to let their consumers buy directly from a virtual world. Much more exciting I think!

Daniel, can you talk us (in laymen’s terms!) how you went about collaborating with Dvein on this one? How did you take their film content and turn it into a VR world?!

Daniel Cheetham (Happy Finish): We needed to work very closely with Dvein. Our production timelines were closely aligned form the very beginning of the project. As they created assets for the film our CG artists and developers received those and set about either translating them into assets that would work in a 360° VR experience or alternatively recreating them in the context of the platform we were targeting.

The key challenge is that our Cardboard app uses real-time graphics rendering on mobile devices, which limits the size (in terms of poly and data) of the assets that are rendered on screen at any one time. Dvein were great throughout the process, through the many creative and technical conversations we had they went out of their way to help us… we look forward to working in a similar way on many more upcoming projects.

Happy Finish has spent a lot of time in R&D exploring how to push the limits of current mobile devices like the iPhone6 and 2015 Android devices. This app is a great example of how much these devices can handle in terms of rendering on screen at any one time. We are very satisfied with what we’ve achieved, but continue to push the limits.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/26/360-degree-head-spin/feed/0Zapping it - Stink director Jonathan Entwistle on comics, commercials and what makes a super-hero tick http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/25/zapping-it/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/25/zapping-it/#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 10:43:49 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13628You seem to have a penchant for super-heroes – is it fair to say you are probably a very well-read comic reader and think in a graphic novel way? Or was this a one-off interest for creating ‘Oceans’?

I LOVE comics! I’ve just finished a stint on the judging panel for the 2014 British Comic Awards which has been amazing! Reading all of the different stories that are coming out is hugely inspiring. I really do think that comics are very close to film. It’s all about telling stories with pictures. Each writer has their own style, as does each artist. It’s like a director and their cinematographer. The world of comics is full of amazing stories that just keep flowing week after week. I’m in awe of just how hugely imaginative it is as an industry!

Personally, I’m a big Marvel Comics fan so super-heroes have a special place in my heart. I just love the idea of exploring what makes a super-hero tick. Stuff like how do they take their coffee? and how do you have a relationship when you are spending every hour fighting crime?!

Your short films – which we love btw – are gritty and rather dark northern tales with persistent bad weather. Whereas Oceans, although there’s a few flying punches, is light hearted and features the cute Maisie Williams from Games of Thrones. How did your directing of the two genres differ?

I guess I’ve been growing a lot as a filmmaker since I left film school back in 2010. When I was there I sat quietly watching and learning about making movies. I was fresh out of art school and my taste was pretty obscure. In many ways, my first few shorts films were just about things I knew, I went back home to make movies in the places I knew, with characters I had grown up with. As I got better at telling stories I actually started to regress back to all of the films and TV I had grown up with; Jurassic Park, Friends, Dawson’s Creek. In my mind I sort of mixed and distilled those with Lars Von Trier and Wes Anderson to pretty much get to my style today.

I don’t really see them as being different genres, they are just different stops along the road of learning how to make movies and how to tell a story. My style is definitely more settled now and I’m getting into the groove and telling the sort of stories I want!

Any major headaches directing Oceans – and how did you resolve them?

No major headaches at all, but there are always creative considerations. For Oceans, I wanted a really specific suburban aesthetic that was still English without being too dark and gritty. Once we found that, out in East London it all started to come together quite quickly.

Maisie was outstanding. From the very first costume fitting, when we first stared working on the mask and the cape, she was 100% into the character. We said to ourselves – imagine if a girl just woke up one day and found she had super powers, only she lived in a tiny flat on the outskirts of London, what would she do? and it just grew from there into a kind of origin story for a super-hero that doesn’t exist (yet!).

We see you’ve joined Stink, how did they discover you?

I’m really excited to be at Stink. They are a high calibre production company with a real sense of change in the air. There is such a good vibe with the direction their roster is taking and I think my films fit into that pretty well.

When I first left film school I was featured as a ‘Star Of Tomorrow’ in Screen International and through that I met Daniel Bergmann and, then Stink CEO, Robert Herman. I got talking to them about film projects and I started working on a few scripts with them and the relationship just grew from there. At around the same time I was working with producer Dominic Buchanan on some other projects and when Stink were looking for a new head of film Dom was a perfect fit and it just worked.

Do you have any current pet projects in development?

A project that I am most excited about is ‘The End Of The Fucking World’. It’s an adaptation of an American comic book by Charles Forsman. It started out life as a short film that we made with Film4 that was then going to be a web-series and then a feature film and it has now found a new lease of life as a TV series. It’s currently in development with the amazing guys at Clerkenwell Films, who created Misfits, and it’s produced by Dominic Buchanan. I think it’s finally found its proper home!

It stars Craig Roberts (Submarine) and Jessica Barden (Hanna) and it’s pretty much an adventure across England with two crazy eighteen year olds who are running away from home. We are really aiming to do something different with TEOTFW. Think Dawson’s Creek directed by Tarantino and you are nearly there!

How did you find the transition from making short films to directing rather complicated looking interactive commercials such as ‘You Control the Weather’ for Geox?

I started out with short films. First with my graduation film and then a few commissions from what was then the Film Council but it wasn’t until I made Human Beings did I start to see a path towards more commercially orientated film. And that’s where my heart really lies – making mainstream / indie movies.

Sometimes, in the UK film industry, that path feels like the most Avant Garde. In a world which is predominantly based upon obscure and intimate films, often government funded, it’s hard to build commercially-minded projects at the lower end of the budget scale. So, I’m actually very comfortable working in commercials and music videos, it’s fun!

My approach to films, commercials and music videos is always the same. For me the most important thing is tone. A consistent tone in a film is absolutely crucial. Balancing the cinematography with the story, sound design, music choice, performance, editing etc. This is film-making! If one of these is slightly out, no matter what medium you are working in you will not get a successful piece of work.

My recent work with GEOX on their worldwide interactive campaign highlighted this. We were creating a series of scenes that you could control in order to create one entire film. The decisions were controlled by the weather and each scene had to work in and of itself in order for the whole film to take shape. I worked tirelessly with the creatives at SMFB Oslo and with Cameron, the Creative Director at StinkDigital, to make this work. Every element of our story had to match the brand, even down to the performances so the tonality had to be just right. Funny, sweet and thoughtful, but dramatic enough to engage people. I think we did a great job!

Did you train at film school or have you learnt on the job?

Both! At film school I learnt what not to do. On the job, you learn exactly what you have to do.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I am currently writing a feature film with the BFI & Screen Australia called ‘Julian Corkle Is A Filthy Liar’ which is based on an Australian novel of the same name. It’s basically a high school movie set in Tasmania in the 1985. It’s about growing up, falling in love and listening to cool music on a tiny island where the next land mass is Antarctica! It’s a fun process that’s really only just beginning but I’m hoping to bring it to fruition very soon!

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/25/zapping-it/feed/0Dancing up a storm - Kampala kids kick up some fun for Ugandan musician Eddy Kenzo's track Sitya Loss http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/24/dancing-up-a-storm/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/24/dancing-up-a-storm/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 09:41:13 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13612Ugandan mathematics teacher Daudi Kokoma, a former street child, began teaching dance moves to children in his neighbourhood resulting in a series of videos that make your heart sing. Have a look in Related Content for more versions.

“I came up with that idea that as we dance, maybe someone may get somewhere, maybe money, and then we pay for school fees. That is how I was inspired to open up that group,” said Kokoma.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/24/dancing-up-a-storm/feed/0Symphony no. 42 - We talk with Passion Pictures director Reka Bucsi about her graduation film - an extraordinary feat of animation style and imagination. As the film is still winning on the festival circuit we show a few excerpts herehttp://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/23/symphony-42/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/23/symphony-42/#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 10:41:01 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13580Please describe your childhood.

I was born in Filderstadt Germany, then we moved to Salzburg Austria until I was eight. After that we moved back to Hungary. I always had a strong connection with my family – they were and still are very supportive in what I am doing.

I loved to draw comics when I was younger. I could completely sympathise with the characters, and got very excited about what would happen to them. Sometimes I miss being that intuitive, I can’t help but think more than I would like to. Also I watched Jaws, Alien and E.T. again and again all the time.

My sister and I would make up the most intense stories and relationships between some plush animals and LEGO people. Sometimes we ended up crying, ‘cause they had to face death as well, it wasn’t just a tea-party.

You draw us into a visual world of abstract poetry that features dream-like “observations of the irrational connections between humans and nature”. Those observations are quirky, totally unpredictable and take us to another planet way beyond our imaginations. How do these visual ideas come to you?

Most of the time it was quite an intuitive process, but I have to say it was almost three years ago now, when I started with the writing and the sketching, so it is hard to recall the process exactly.

I remember having fun, some pictures and characters just jumped to me, as I was glancing and sitting on the bus, some of them are more concrete illustrations of things I found interesting or amusing in some way. It is a collection of my thoughts from a few years ago, which I narrowed down to a more coherent universe and topic.

Do you have a surreal sub-plot running through your mind all the time or do you construct these stories in a dogmatic structured way?

I like to start with the detail. I don’t have a strategy or a structure in the beginning. I always go for a character, an environment or a topic I feel safe with, which means I am honestly interested in it. I see how a character looks and what it could do. I try to treat them as living creatures who have the ability to do their own thing and make their own decisions.

In the developing process, I felt more and more drawn to some of the characters. I felt like a parent.

Do you evolve your ideas with sketches or words?

In the case of Symphony no. 42 it was more words, but my current film is much more about sketches. It depends what mood I am in, or what the movie requires. Also I am afraid to forget an idea I have, and it is faster to write everything down if you are not in the situation to take ink and paper. Sometimes when I read some old notes I had, I cannot figure out anymore what the idea was. It just doesn’t make sense in a written format.

Why the title, Symphony no. 42? Is it a symphony of 42 concepts?

Yes you could say that as well, but there are 47 scenes, not 42, which might be confusing. I refer more to the process of creating. I felt rather like composing than directing, and the number 42 is a mystical, though very usual number. It is a special central number in mathematics, and other science, so people might give it a bigger symbolic meaning than it actually carries. I like the number for its contradiction.

Although it’s not a classical linear narrative there’s a coherent thread of ideas that keeps the viewer engaged. How did you structure your film? Did you have a clear idea of what you wanted to express from the beginning and was this in response to a brief set for your MA degree from Mome in Budapest?

No, there is no brief set for MA projects at MOME. Everyone is free to make whatever she/he wants to do. My main goal was to have fun and experiment. I knew it would be much harder to make my own film out in the ‘real world’, so I felt like getting as much out of my graduation film as I could. I wanted to have something to represent me for my future films, in order to have a reference for what I like.

I had all these small sketches and mainly writing. I started to arrange them, and involved my sound designer to add his layer of ideas in sound. We played around a lot with the animatic, and while sorting out and adding ideas, a coherent topic made itself clear, but it was never my intention to have a clear statement about the relationship between men and nature. I wanted to make something with humor, but secretly I was hoping that people find it sad as well. I do think it is sad.

How did your animation style evolve, have you always sketched this way – and how did you brief the extra animators who helped you on the project?

At that time I was drawing mainly digitally, on my Wacom tablet. I remember getting a more and more clear picture about how I want Symphony no. 42 to look. I was experimenting with a lot of software and brushes, so no, I had very different looking work as well. I think in school you are supposed to try things, and see how it turns out for you. I still don’t like to narrow down how to draw the line. I enjoy when I see something new coming out of my work. I can get bored quite easily.

The animators who helped out were mainly students from the university, but I also had some professional animators helping out. I did a quite detailed animatic in terms of rhythm, so I gave them a very precise description in a written format, the TV paint project with the layout and the animatic. Luckily I had the chance to work next to most of them at the university, so if they had an idea, we could consult very easily and fast. It was a great experience in directing a team.

We were expecting a Beethoven soundtrack (of course!) but that only gets a brief playtime amongst the sound effects of vomiting wolves, operatic penguins, grating brains and extraterrestrial ambient noise which all play such an integral part of the film. What were your key considerations when creating the audio?

The sound design was important from the very beginning. I worked with Péter Benjámin Lukács, who is able to read my mind by now, which is extremely important for me, as describing sound is always very tricky. My main goal was to have a sound layer, which is not just an illustration of the image, but adds more to the narrative as well. We wanted to record as many parts as possible, to have a rich 3D sound for this quite simple 2D world. We spent some time sleepless in the sound studio, recording all of the movements and other little noises.

After that, Péter designed the recorded sounds. While I was painting backgrounds, he was sitting next to me and worked on the sound. It was a very intense and fun process. I didn’t intend to use music, as I felt it is much stronger without it, creating the right balance between silence and atmospheres. In my next project I will work with music, which is very new and exciting for me.

What was the most challenging part of making the film and how did you resolve any problems?

The most challenging part was the deadline. It had to be ready for the graduation, beginning of summer. I knew it would be stressful, but I wasn’t expecting anything like that. There is always something unexpected coming up that doesn’t work or has to be redone. I was only concentrating on the goal of finishing, I was in a different state of mind. I couldn’t speak about anything else but my film. For sure I wasn’t fun to be around.

What are the key lessons you learnt from making Symphony no. 42 that you have brought to your next project? And, if it’s not top secret, can you tell us about your new work please?

I see the mistakes in the film, but I love it as it is, and happy that I am not completely satisfied with what I have done. I am working on a similarly long film at the moment, also drawing animation, but I want to work with a small group of people. In Symphony I had many helping hands, but many people did small parts. Sometimes just one small sequence. This made it hard to control and have an overlook, and sometimes do retakes to keep it in the same shape.

My next short film is not top secret, but it is still kind of secret. It is titled LOVE and will be a French-Hungarian co-production, hopefully finished by October 2015.

I found the transition between school and work-a-day world quite smooth, as I almost immediately took an international workshop for after-graduates called ASF (Animation Sans Frontieres). This helped me a lot to get to know more people from the industry, and get an overview on how things work outside school. I pitched my project at the workshop, this way a paired up with Passion Pictures Paris, who are the main producers for LOVE. Right now I am developing the project in Denmark at the artist residency, Open Workshop.

You’ve recently signed to Passion Pictures. What would be your dream job?

My dream job is something where I can work with good people, and can bring my own aesthetics to the project. This is basically what Passion is offering, so I am quite happy to be part of the team.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/23/symphony-42/feed/0Snap! Crackle! Pop! - Yessiree this is a cracker - Carlos Lopez Estrada does a one-take dance routine with his girlfriendhttp://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/19/snap-crackle-pop/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/19/snap-crackle-pop/#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 09:00:25 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13570Oh where to begin? In fact where did the idea begin? And how did it evolve?

I think I had just watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit and got excited about doing something light and animated. Cameron Clark, who animated this, had also been working on some great character animations and we figured it would be a good idea to combine powers and make something ridiculous together.

On the surface it looks easy, but on the fifth viewing you realise how clever it is. How did you go about making it?

It was the most stressful thing and no one should ever make one-shot videos. They always sound like a great idea until you are on set, biting your nails, ripping your hair, drowning in overtime and realizing that there is a pretty serious chance that you just won’t pull it off. This one was a lot of fun but also dangerously close to not existing because of how long it took to set up. There really aren’t too many complicated things about it, but it took about 12 hours to set the shot up, and then we only had a chance to film four takes of the video. I went into the bathroom to pray before the fourth take, and we somehow managed to do it once without any hiccups. It also didn’t help to be in front of the camera and have no idea what I was doing.

What was behind the decision to make the head masks angular and the way they are?

They are loosely inspired by the Easter Island sculptures. I honestly have no idea why, though. I think we were looking into all kinds of mask designs and really liked how huge and uncomfortable these ones would look.

Did you cast for dancers or actors who can dance? Please tell us about the choreography process.

You may not know this, but I am neither an actor nor a dancer, and I somehow decided that it would be a good idea to cast myself in this. Then, to complicate things more, I asked my girlfriend to dance in it with me. Something about it made sense at the time. We also didn’t have a lot of money to hire a good choreographer (or dancers). We realized from the start that this wasn’t going to be a *good* choreography, and that it was most important to capture the amateur energy, than to create a good dance number. We watched videos like Fatboy Slim’s “Praise you” and Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon” for inspiration. It was actually a lot more fun than I am making it sound. It was worth every second of pain.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/19/snap-crackle-pop/feed/0On the cusp: Sing J Lee - Graduated only two years ago, this UK born and bred Chinese director has been belting out great music videos. Take a look in related content http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/17/on-the-cusp-sing-j-lee/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/17/on-the-cusp-sing-j-lee/#commentsTue, 17 Feb 2015 21:58:19 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13556We’ve been rummaging around trying to find some info about you and found you graduated in 2012. Where from and what were you doing?

I studied Illustration with Animation at Manchester School of Art.

Please briefly describe your childhood.

My parents were always doing graphic design, painting or drawing when I was younger, and so my childhood was filled with art. I was a tearaway and a general nuisance, but drawing would be one of the few activities that could keep my attention for more than five minutes. When I wasn’t doing that, we were travelling up and down the country with my mum and her new paintings, installing them in exhibitions.

How has your duo cultural heritage affected your vision? In fact how would you describe your visual style?

Duo culture has definitely had an influence on me, especially the contrast between the two in terms of censorship, freedom of speech and freedom to create. In my work, I certainly draw upon Asian ideas and aesthetic just as much as I do with Western culture. Chinese storytelling is poetic and lyrical, that is something I find quite compelling too.

My visual style is considered and precise – framing and colour are just as important to me in telling a story or mood as the characters and narrative.

You’ve managed to shoot a fair few music videos – how have these come about? Are they official videos or have you simply kept yourself busy and got out there and made them?

I have an excellent music promo rep – Alexa Haywood who runs Free Agent UK, we’ve been working together from the very beginning. Over the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work and collaborate with some great artists and labels.

You’ve worked a lot with Chvrches, how does the collaboration work and how did your relationship with the band come about?

In true modern day style, a couple of years ago, CHVRCHES shared a promo for a Manchester based band on their social media. As it turned out, I had directed that promo. Being a huge fan of CHVRCHES, I reached out to them and asked if I could write on their new single. Timing was good and I wrote on ‘Gun’. Incidentally, I didn’t make that video, but I had the chance to write again for their follow up, which turned out to be ‘The Mother We Share’. They were great people to work with and we became good friends and collaborators for the remainder of their album campaign, we talked a lot about the genesis of the lyrics or the ideas that inspired the music.

We saw your trailer about Molly Perkins a young boxer. Please tell us your plans for this.

This was a small teaser video to accompany a pitch for a documentary open call. We were unsuccessful, but once I put the video online, the positive response was pretty extraordinary, both from doc commissioners and audience alike. I’m now in the process of evolving the idea, pushing it further than just boxing. Without giving too much away, I’m looking at youth and young adults. If anyone does want to get involved, do get in touch.

What are the key lessons you’ve learnt about film making?

Keep shooting, communicate, collaborate!

Are you London based?

I am now, I lived in Manchester for five/six years, I’ve just moved to London at the start of this year. It’s been a pretty surreal couple of months already…

What would the dream job be over the next year?

To continue to work on amazing ideas with great people in music and advertising.
I’m also in development with a new short film, working with long time good friend and producer, Loran Dunn. This particular project could be a really special one, it’s what I’m most excited about.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I love to chat and I like to hear stories, so find me on social media, and let’s go for coffee.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/17/on-the-cusp-sing-j-lee/feed/0Beat up - David Donihue cuts a mean revenge story for Bi-Polar Junction. The Super Rad Films director talks about scripts, stress and synchronicityhttp://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/16/beat-up/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/16/beat-up/#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 10:55:13 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13549Mental action on all levels – live action and post-production.

To me, it is impossible to tell a simple story. No story is simple. You can tell complex stories in a simple way, but no story is simple. Every person has a motive and there are distinct psychological reasons behind all motives and your duty is do the human heart justice and not just say what but why. Because of this, one can never look at life’s circumstances from one standpoint. By default, most work end up rather packed with information.

If you take the character of Jen Bardeen, she is first portrayed as a human doormat. You feel for her and then actually root for her when she loses it. But why did she lose it? And why did she allow herself to be treated like this until she couldn’t take it anymore. By halfway through the story, it alludes she is the survivor of sexual abuse, which can cause several different types of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome Symptoms.

In some, it turns them into predators or viscous sociopaths. Yet in others, it turns them into overly empathetic creatures. Almost Jesus like, they turn the other cheek and waste no time with hostility. Their mind is too busy doing back flips to make sense of the darkness that was bestowed on them. Because of their refusal to become dark, they tend to attract those who are weaker and more desperate for control. Those who know they will turn the other cheek and take advantage of it. These weak desperate types prey on empathetic creatures the way the central character is viscously attacked by her family on social media and conspired against by co-workers who seemingly hate her for being sexually attractive (thus the woman mouthing “whore” at the beginning).

What initially looks like a simple story of a woman lashing out against the people who have treated her with cruelty quickly reveals itself as a young woman letting the dark hearts of this world spin her into someone she is not. Her inability to find love is coupled with a need for sex that puts her in the driver’s seat of her emotional road but once the dust settles, it opens the door to the dark memories. While allowing herself to be distracted by the negatives of her past, she is hit by life again. This time, a car.

The story plays out like a psychological essay on post-trauma but ultimately, she refuses to be held down. Metaphorically and physically, she escapes her captors and finds her heaven.

When I first wrote the story I laughed my ass off at the concept of a girl kicking the crap out of stuffy office types. It was that simple for me. By the time I was in post, I found myself tearing up at the machine for this girl. I felt blessed to be able to make this one.

Please tell: How the video evolved – did you write the script based on the beat? What was the original brief? And what were the other ideas that were being sloshed around before you decided to go with girl-on-the-rampage line?

The video was a treatment that existed for about six months before I found the right song. First and foremost, I’ve always been a kid with pen and pad, scribbling down short stories. I stock pile them and listen to new songs every day while writing and wait patiently for perfect matches. When the producer of the song sent me the track, I knew this was the perfect track to carry the story. And he agreed. We bonded over its wild antics and the songs emotionally powerful thrusts instantly. We were so on the same page. However, there was a slight problem. The song originally ended with its cinematic section of the score and not the pounding dubstep drop that you see in the video now at the end. Great way to end the tune. But not the right ending for the video.

The story had a very specific upbeat ending. It had to scream that anyone can push past the darkness of their lives and find their heaven. Sure, she was chasing heaven in all the wrong ways. But I wanted her to find it, all the same. I wanted her to win! Yet the song ended on sadness. I called the producer and asked if BiPolar Junction would be open to me copying the dubstep drop from the middle and paste it into the ending so we could have the story end on a high note and honestly, on a genuine note. People overcome the darkness of their childhoods all the time. To me, the most honest ending was not a defeated one.

The producer and BPJ both agreed and they didn’t just copy the drop, they immediately ran back into the studio in the middle of the night and wrote a new drop for the ending! God bless those guys. The collaboration throughout is what made this story come to life. I will admit, that almost every frame looks exactly the way I imagined when I put pen to paper several months prior and this was because of how collaborative and supportive the label and artist was. God bless those guys, seriously.

The one thing we did skew for the treatment, was that I named the characters after the inventors of the BiPolar Junction Transistor, from where the artist drew the projects name. Jen Bardeen is named after John Bardeen, a brilliant scientist who worked for Silicone Valley founder William Shockley, who was known to steal the ideas of others and use politics to oust those that he took from. I put her in her own office (instead of the other cubicles) to show that she was in fact an inventor at the tech start up, not just a support team on the floor. This made it easier for everyone to hate her and gave Aaron Perilo’s character a reason to take her down. Basically, we upped the references to the origins of the tech sector as a nod to the artist’s name which many people thought was a reference to mental illness, not to an electrical component. In this case it worked perfectly, as it was as if circuit breaking in the mind of a character. We used the BPJ logo as the company’s logo which shows the electrical component as a blueprint.

The casting particular of the lead actress is great. What was the process of finding her?

Casting was a challenge. And it was the only part of the video I was nervous about. I needed the perfect actress. I needed someone who could carry the comedy, perform the drama and wasn’t inhibited provided the project was from the heart. The videos producer and one of my best friends, Dave Miller, went through hundreds of head shots and reels of everywhere from backstage west to craigslist while we both called all of the agents we knew. There were some high profile people working on the hunt for us, no doubt. Before we did the first round of casting Miller spotted Jessica’s picture and noted both a sweetness and intensity to her and we called her in. She had acted in very respected theater groups and there was just this weird gut instinct that came over me when I saw her pic. She came and was dressed like a hillbilly with dorky glasses and acted like a tomboy, which made Dave and I think she was totally awesome to hang out with. Yet there was nothing about her personality that seemed like Jen Bardeen. However the intelligence she had was obvious. I knew within seconds the girl could play anything just by the way she carried herself. She cared about nothing but doing the character justice and asked all the right questions about Bardeen’s mental makeup.

But still, there were specific requirements. She had to be believable as someone who gets smashed by her office and lashes back in such an extreme way. And, of equal importance, we were determined that many of the shots look like “female model” magazines as an extra nod to her lash out. Her lash outs had feel like an attempt to be that perfect girl from the mags and I wanted the violence shots to look like a testosterone filled Clairol ad. Thus, she had to be able to not just throw a punch, but to fling her hair really high while throwing that punch and land in a model pose. It was an absolute necessity if the metaphors were going to play. I asked Miller to stand across from her and said “Okay, I’ll be buying Dave a beer after this. Hit him hard and see how high that hair can fling!”

She took a swing and the hair flew. And she landed in the perfect pose. And what we noticed, is the moment I said action, she morphed exactly into Jen Bardeen. She went from clumsy, cool ass tomboy best friend to the sexy, confident ass kicking character that we needed.

A week and half later we show up to set and I knew I had found the one of the best actresses I had ever met. Dozens of high profile agents submitting and Miller finds her on Backstage West. Hilarious. Now, one is never surprised when they find out they’ve accidentally casted someone who relates to their character. It happens because it’s meant to. But this circumstance, was %^&$ing ridiculous. We show up to the office, which was a tech start up incubator on Silicon Beach in Santa Monica. The block there is a hub for invention and I wanted the feeling of startups in the air while shooting.

But never would I have imagined, that Jessica would turn to me and say “David! I used to work in this office and my boss was a total douche who fired me! He played people against each other. It was my first job when I moved to LA and it was so humiliating” I couldn’t believe it. We literally ended up shooting her banging her fictional bosses brains out and punching him in the face on the very conference table where she was once expelled from. I’m pretty sure the location made it easy for her to play this role, to put it mildly. All I can say is – I really hope he sees the video!

You seem comfortable working with special effects – have you worked in VFX?

I have always loved FX and camera tricks. Imagination. It’s what starts you off as a creative. When I first started making films, I was 11 and we would use two VCRs and stereo cables to do the edit and mirrors and such to do super man type flying shots. I would use piles of flour on boards and kick them for explosions, that sort of thing.

The stories I tell are usually bigger, so I’ve had to train myself to make sure I am not limited by my own technical abilities. In the past (on my feature film The Weathered Underground) I had directed a room full of eight motion graphics dudes in order to hit deadline.

The deadline on this one was looser so I just did the fx myself. More stuff is done live and in camera than one would suspect. I still use things like mirrors and dust bombs and all the practical props to trick the eye, bounce light, etc. For the car wreck it was a combination of camera moves, fake rubber glass and water as well as after effects on top of it. I tried to keep the fx very organic. Even though the runtime of the fx was literally close to a third of the video (insane when on a modest budget), I wanted it to not distract from the story. Thus why we focused more on how light and flares communicate the story just as much as the fancy graphics and heaven shots.

What was the most challenging aspect of the production and how did you resolve it?

Believe it or not, there wasn’t much that was challenging about this one. That’s not always the case. And we thought it would be harder than it was as the budget was modest and the video required a large cast and a ton of locations. Yet, it flowed so smooth when making it. Sure, I was shooting with cop cars and guns and stunts but I’m used to that stuff and honestly, it was like God was on our side, saying, I’m gonna make this one happen so easy. Also, we’ve been doing so much stuff in a row we’ve become a rather well oiled machine in many regards. You can sorta just nod at each other and it all comes together.

The only scary point actually, was Jessica had to jump towards a plate glass window while kicking a guy in the face. The way the location was laid out there was no way around it. It was the last shot of the fight sequence and I wanted it to be pretty freaking awesome. I think she did the jump around eight times in a row and the actor she was kicking was so sweet, such a nice guy and great trooper. We took our time on that scene. We made sure everyone felt safe. But still, if someone would have been moving sloppy someone could have gotten hurt and as a director, that is truly your worst nightmare, set accidents.

DOPING is one my favorite tracks of the year. And I am so stoked to see both the music and story resonating with others. God, I love the process of creation and all the wonderful peeps it brings into your life along the way.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/16/beat-up/feed/0Every Breaking Wave - Belfast-born Aoife McArdle hits home with gutsy yet tender, emotionally-charged short film for U2 through Somesuchhttp://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/12/the-troubles/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/12/the-troubles/#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 20:07:24 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13529Somesuch director Aoife McArdle’s brutal and gripping short film, Every Breaking Wave based on the U2 song of the same name, is set on the streets of early 1980s Northern Ireland. It is built around themes of emotional abandon and the uncertainty of romantic relationships following two teenagers, one Catholic and the other Protestant, who fall in love amidst the ongoing violence.

Talking about her vision for the short film, Belfast-born McArdle said: “I wanted to make a film about what it was like to be a teenager in the early ’80s in Northern Ireland. All the different pressures on you, the pressures of friendship, of falling in love for the first time, and all that in the face of huge troubles.

“Violence was inescapable on your doorstep. I remember very vividly what it was like to grow up when there were bombs going off and army everywhere so I did draw on a lot of memories. I hope people see that it’s a story – a story that’s based on real stories. It’s like capturing a time. And I hope people feel inspired by how resilient teenagers at that time were in Northern Ireland, and moved by their ability to live life in as full a way as possible, despite the circumstances.”

McArdle in her interview with The Creators Project, says she mapped out a script with the music pouring from her speakers, noting what stanzas she could set dialogue over, what parts couldn’t have dialogue, when the music could speak for the action, and when lyrics could take over in telling the story. “It’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together,” she explains. While listening to the soaring strains of “Every Breaking Wave” and “The Troubles” on repeat, McArdle instinctively knew that she wanted to mix omniscient and voyeuristic high angle shots captured by moving cranes with more visceral and emotional close encounters, “moving from the intimate to the epic in a moment” as she describes.

For cinematography, McArdle turned to paintings for hints on how to use light and color to enhance story and character. “Weirdly, I’ve been looking at a lot of Max Ernst again. Mostly because of the way he used the color yellow,” she says. She admired how Ernst’s arresting yellows popped in his depictions of bleak environments. And Edward Hopper, she adds, who paints with an “underexposed” aesthetic, using vivid colors to depict noir. Similarly, she accentuates the effect in her own films when color grading the final piece, stating, “I like when you can’t really see people’s faces because I think it makes them more enigmatic. It gives them back the mystery afterwards.” Other painters who have significantly influenced the aesthetic of her work include Francis Bacon, George Shaw, and filmmaker Alan Clarke.

She wanted the fictional story to have an air of realism, which meant street-casting actors and filming in Northern Ireland. For the lead boy, she searched for someone who looked tough, but could also show a glimmer of vulnerability. “I was walking down the street and I spotted these two boys just hanging out, smoking cigarettes outside the town hall in Belfast. And I just thought one of them had the most arresting eyes and an interesting face,” she says. She persuaded him to audition and cast him as the lead. The rest of the characters are all played by kids who are born and raised in Belfast. As the film shooting began and progressed, McArdle notes they grew increasingly more brilliant, and could pull from their own lives and emotions from growing up in the aftermath. “One of them was like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to be a hairdresser because my mum’s got a hairdressing salon.’ And I’m like, ‘No you’re not, you’re going to be an actor,’” she says.

]]>http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/12/the-troubles/feed/0The space between - COLONEL BLIMP'S NEW DIRECTOR PEDRO MARTÍN-CALERO EXPLORES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/11/the-space-between/
http://www.onepointfour.co/2015/02/11/the-space-between/#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 13:42:38 +0000lyndyhttp://www.onepointfour.co/?p=13515You have an astute eye for framing spaces, usually architectural, in your work. Is there something specific in your background and training that gives you your distinctive vision – for instance were you trained as a photographer?

Thanks! Before I started directing my own stuff I studied at ECAM (Cinema school of Madrid) and worked as a DOP. My eye for imagery and framing probably developed from being so focused on the visual element of telling narratives.

Do you research the locations before your develop a narrative? Please tell us about your creative process. Do you storyboard in detail?

It depends on the project and of course the amount of freedom I’m given to develop my work. However, I always try to express my own personality and character even though I’m working to create something the client wants. Since everyone sees things differently, my own vision is the most valuable thing I can give.

I don’t do a classic storyboard, I like to frame and take photos on location, pretty much the same as what appears in the film and then I write a technical script, but once you’re on the set, everything you planned before changes. Making a film is a live and evolving process, so I adapt as I go.

You use the human form in interesting ways to tell your stories – the architect observing the dancer for Squires for instance. Did you evolve the movements with a choreographer and what were you trying to express with the dance?

The process to make this video was really unusual. In the beginning there wasn’t a main concept or a script, and the client wanted to convey so many quite abstract things in one film! The challenge was to make it something more unified. It was really interesting working directly with an architect and the client was a very creative guy. I can’t remember how many meetings we had, there were a lot, we discussed some concepts again and again until we found something that both of us liked.

With the dance we wanted to express that architecture is something which is emotional as well as physical, something that you can interact with and it affects your mood. Because if someone built a really ugly building just in front of your house it would make your life a bit uglier and sadder, and the opposite can happen. I love the South Bank because of all the interesting spaces between the graphic structures and as a place it gives a feeling of such creativity that it made sense to base the dance there.

So, we first rehearsed in the studio, after that the choreographer, the dancer and I went to the locations to compose the dance movements into the urban space. Finally, on the shooting day we changed what didn’t work on camera, so there was some improvisation in this process.

I feel this piece is an equally weighted work between the choreographer Aaron Sillis, the dancer Naomi and me.

Although there isn’t dancing in Territoire’s Blanc you place the characters in poses which create a sense of claustrophobia and impending violence in a very studied theatrical way. Please tell us about the narrative behind this film and how you evolved the character studies.

The idea is about a conflicting and tortuous relationship between a father and son. To that end to emphasise the confrontation between the two characters I used motionless frames and placed them in abstract, isolated spaces in which apparently nothing happens.

I like to use narration in a purely visual way, based in abstract and moody images. The main goal was to build deep suffocating atmospheres using the minimum of elements. In fact in most of the shots you only see a motionless guy in a lonely place looking directly to the camera in a fixed shot. I see it like a psychological horror movie.

Do you feel that your Spanish heritage influences your work?

I’ve never thought about it until my father, after seeing Blanc, told me that it was deeply influenced by the Spanish topics, such as Death, Life and Struggle.

Also in Spain we are always in crisis, apart from a long period after the American discovery (but that was some centuries ago) and after the democratic transition in the eighties and nineties, but nowadays we’ve seen that everything was a fake, an economic bubble and a rotten spiritual era. Goya’s black paintings and José de Ribera’s portraits perfectly paint this Spanish (dark-always in crisis) mood and I’ve been always been obsessed with them. And of course they talk about Death, Life and Struggle. Maybe my father was right. I hope he will not read this, I don’t like to ever acknowledge that he is right…

Did you train as a film-maker or are you self taught?

As I said before I started as a DoP and that was a good training because I learned from working with a lot of directors. I would say that I learned quite a lot of what I shouldn’t do rather than what I should do when directing.

An elevator version of what led you to directing please.

Orson Welles. And I talked to you before about Ribera and Goya…. I know what you are thinking and yes, I love all the classics… I hope that doesn’t sound boring in an elevator!

Briefly, please describe your childhood.

I was born in Valladolid but spent most of my childhood in a small village in the mountains of León. During those years, I wistfully remember the weeks I spent isolated by the snow at the family house, but above all, I remember the smell of fresh handmade cheese I used to make with my grandfather.

For better or for worse, I was neighbors with the teacher at the school, so when classes were cancelled by the weather I had to go straight to his place to take the lessons. At the age of twelve, we went back to the capital and my parents bought a telly, I didn’t have one before! Also I started to go to the cinema and became obsessed with cinema and motion images. I remember I never had much money and several times when I went to the cinema and the film was finished I hid myself in the cinema bathroom and gate-crashed another movie. I actually only stopped doing that one year ago… ha!